*Nothing to Disclose*

     I'm posting outside of my regular schedule for a special reason today. The members of The Stamping Shop group on Facebook have gotten together for a fun little collab for Groundhogs day and I thought it was a fun idea. Everyone who participated did a manicure with what they thought Punxsutawney Phil’s prediction would be. If they thought he would predict 6 more weeks of winter you did a winter themed manicure, if you thought he would predict an early spring you did a spring themed manicure. I am desperately hoping for an early spring. I've got the urge to go camping already and am over the cold temps of my Minnesota winter. It's been a mild one for snow but the temps have been brutally cold. And I'm cheating a little bit because I did this manicure back in early November but didn't have an appropriate time to share it until now. Hence the lush green grass for my background and beautiful sunlight to capture the shimmer. Oh, spring....hurry up and get here, I miss you!

     For this manicure, I started with a base of Black Cherry from the Orly Velvet Dreams Collection. This deep rich color was the inspiration for my entire manicure and has started a slight obsession of polishes similar to this. You might remember I recently shared with you Con Artist from Nvr Enuff another polish in this color family. Plus I may have ordered a few more recently that will be on the blog soon.

*Press Sample*

     Just a few weeks after releasing her Alice in Lacquerland collection Literary Lacquers is at it again with a trio just in time for Valentines Day. This Collection was named by a member of the Fan group and it's like they were reading my mind. I am a HUGE Princess Bride fan. So much so that my I'm having my friend who is officiating my wedding this fall open with this famous line...

     Typically I'm not a fan of the shaped glitter in polish. You will notice that I have maybe one other polish on my blog with them in it. That being said I actually like this one. The shapes are not overpowering and blend well with the hex glitters for a fun look. I don't see myself wearing this a lot but it is a great polish for Valentines.

Princess Buttercup

     Color: White matte polish with pink glitter and shimmer.

     Application: Smooth formula with even application. This polish is a bit on the sheer side and I had quite the VNL after 2 coats. Opacity builds up nicely and I was able to get full coverage after 3 coats.  Shown as 3 coats plus a matte top coat.

The Man in Black

*Press Release*

*Nothing to Disclose*

     I'm back today with another comparison post. This time I'll be comparing two polishes from the same company, Sinful Colors. It's not often that a company dupes itself but Sinful Colors had been known to at least come close on more than one occasion. Take my post on Cream Soda vs Orange Cream for example. Add to that it seems like every time Sinful releases a new collection someone in the Sinfully Polished group asks for a comparison to a previous color. That's why when coming up with ideas for my dupes series I went straight to my Sinful Colors stash. Today I'll be comparing Hush Money,  a core line color, to Gold n Roses from the 2016 Valentine's Collection.

     In the bottle, you can see that both colors have a nice rose gold tone. At first glance, these would appear to be the same color. It's not until you look closer that you can see there is a finish difference but the shades look exactly the same to me.  Is it the same once the polish is on the nail? Both colors will be shown as two coats plus top coat.

     Not exactly the dupes I thought I had when looking at the bottles. Gold N Roses (on my ring and pointer finger) is so much lighter and looks almost peach to me after 2 coats while Hush Money maintains that nice rose gold tone and full opacity. 

     

     The difference in finishes is more evident on the nail than in the bottle. Hush Money is a micro-shimmer and Gold n Ross is a glass fleck. 

     Gold N Roses is a much thinner polish with an obvious VNL after 2 coats. Hush Money is very opaque but not a one coater. I still had a slight VNL after one coat but it builds up quite nicely. Part of me wonders if I'd added a third coat of Gold N Roses if the colors would be closer to dupes. I just can't get over how different they look on the nail. 

      It turns out that these two are not dupes at all. Do you need both in your collection? I'd say that's up to you. Personally, I prefer Hush Money, it's more opaque and has a richer rose gold tone. I'm not giving up on Gold n Roses yet though. I'm going to have to wear it with a third coat to see if I can build up to slightly darker color or at the very least get rid of the VNL. Which color do you prefer? Thanks for stopping by and Happy Polishing!

*Nothing to Disclose*

     Today I have a bit of a different post to share with you today. My daughter has decided that it's time to take over my blog again. It's been a few years since she's done this, in fact, the last time way back in January 2014 with her Laffy Taffy polish post.  This time she tried her hand at a little nail art. 

     Sydney often comes into my office and asks if she can do watermarble designs. Typically she just makes the design in the water, removes it from the cup and starts another design. She's even starting her own collection of Sinful Colors polishes just so she can do this. Last month Sydney was hanging out in my office working on a watermarble design while I was putting together my red nail polish stamping comparison post and was inspired by my half black half white nails. Instantly the watermarble fun was forgotten and she wanted to do her nails in a similar way. This is what she came up with.

*Nothing to Disclose*

      It's time once again for the Untired A-Z Challenge and the letter B. This time around I am once again only sharing 1 polish but I have decided that I may share 2 or 3 polishes for each letter just to help knock out a few more untrieds. Like I mentioned in the event this is a totally laid back challenge and a fun way to work through those untried polishes a lot of us have in our collections.


      For my Letter B polish, I went with a polish I've had forever from Sally Hansen. Bronze Ablaze is part of the Insta-Dri line and sadly I  believe is no longer available for purchase. That's the one bad thing about going back and using a bunch of untried polishes. I'll probably be sharing quite a few that are no longer available. I just hope you're like me and like looking at pretty polish no matter what the availability is.